Noise
by great treasure
Summary: Emily Blane goes out of he way to be alone. but when she joins the X-men, She meets Laura Kinney a girl who knows how difficult opening up to people can be, and discovers that with her, the noise of the world isn't so bad.
1. Genisis

Emily turned up the volume on her headphones as she walked down the street. She pulled up her hood and walked on to the music store. The staff looked at her for a moment and turned away as they usually did. She went over to the rock section and started flipping through. Music was roaring in her ears and she didn't notice for a while that there was someone talking to her. "What?" she said irately as she turned down her headphones. The person who was talking was a girl of about 15. She was smiling broadly and holding a CD out for her. "These guys are really good. Crush 40, have you heard of them?" Emily took the CD and turned went over to the bar-code scanner next to her. She listened to the first song and decided she liked it. She turned to the girl and said, "it's good." And went to pay for it. Emily hated the girls. It wasn't personal, but she was alive, so she hated her. The girl was confused and offended. She went back to looking over the CD's, feeling very bitter at the turn of events-Emily didn't care, she hated her. She started walking home, her headphones turned up to their loudest, drowning out all other noise. The sun started going down as she turned into her shortcut through the park. She thought about the girl in the Music store. She was well aware that she was like that to everyone she met. If she didn't hate someone, she was indifferent to them. this was a mantra that got her many enemies in school and around town in general. She lowered the volume of her headphones a bit. There was less noise in the park-less accursed noise. Suddenly she felt she was in danger and stopped. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and turned off her headphones. She did her best to focus through the noise and felt the three boys coming before they arrived. "Hey headphones. Don'tcha think it's dangerous for a girl to be out her alone." One of the boys said. The three large boys came out from behind the trees and into her line of sight. Her breath caught in her throught when she saw that they each had a baseball bat. Despite her fear, she couldn't help but be her usual blunt self. "leave me alone you punks, you're making too much noise." They didn't seem upset at that statement-indeed, they just seemed more amused. "Yeah, y'see, that's the problem. You think you're better than all of us, and that you have the right to just talk to us anyway you want. We think it's time for you to learn your lesson." At that they all began to approach her. She was surrounded with nowhere to run. She had never felt so terrified in all her life, and it seemed very likely that it would be the last feeling in her life. She took a deep breath and looked the leader in the eyes-if she was going to die anyway, then she would die defiantly. He raised his bat and brought it down towards her head. Suddenly, the bat flew out of his hand-along with the bats of the other two. They stopped and looked at her for a few moments and began to back away. Then they were aware that their bats hadn't just flown out, they were still floating around them. "She's a Mutie! Run!" Emily kept her eyes locked on them as they ran, the bats suddenly going after them, landing several hits until Emily stopped caring and the bats dropped. She turned up her headphones and started walking away, slowly processing the truth-she had suspected since she was seven years old-she was a mutant.


	2. meetings

Several months later…

Laura Kinney was sitting at the breakfast table looking around at the others. They all looked happy. Jean was cooking with Scott; kitty was sitting at the other end of the dinner table with her boyfriend, Peter. Logan and storm were out jogging, they all seemed to be in relationships-happy ones. She couldn't quite believe that of the all the students teachers in the Xavier institute, she was the only one without any kind of close personal relationship. She brooded over this for some time until the professor wheeled in. "Everyone! I have to speak with you all urgently." Laura looked at Charles with notable attention-that telepath didn't often get this agitated. "What is it professor?" he took a breath to regain his composure, "I was checking with Cerebra when I was struck with an overwhelming psionic force. Somewhere in New York, there is an impossibly strong psychic. One with such power should not be left to her own devices. I know that this is highly irregular but I need some of you to go and convince this child to come and receive training." There was a murmur of wonder as the news sank in-the professor usually only sent them out when there was a serious danger to mutants en masse. For him to send them to retrieve one lone mutant, she must have been very powerful. "Jean, Scott, I would like you to go of course, but I think it would be a good idea for you to take Kitty as well, I think it would be a good idea to bring someone she will look upon as an equal, and also, I felt a wisp of sadness when I sensed her and a companion would most likely help convince her."

"I'd like to go." Laura blurted out. They were all surprised by the sudden outburst-Laura most of all. The professor looked at her skeptically, "if I may ask, why do you want to go?" She looked away awkwardly. "I just feel that I should." She answered simply. The professor looked at her for a moment and then said, "very well, you shall go to-If you don't have any objections scot?"

"Not at all. In fact, I think it's a good idea for Laura to go along-she might get a friend out of it." Laura scowled at him, she wasn't trying to make friends, she just felt that she should be going with them. "Alright then. we leave in an hour." Scott said.

* * *

><p>A few hours later they had landed the black bird in New York and were Making their way to Emilys house. Laura scowled. She didn't like New York.<p>

In an hour or so, they wer at Emily's house in the suburbs. it was a perfectly normal hous-no one would guess that an insanely powerful mutant was living in it. Jean rang the doorbell. Moments later a woman opened it, "oh, hello. May I help you?" she asked politely.

"Yes. We're here about your daughter-" Scott started, when the woman suddenly got nervous.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did Emily do anything to you? If she said something wrong I'm really sorry."

"Oh no, it's nothing like that. We're here from the Xavier institute for gifted children-"

"The X-men?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"Yes, basicaly. We're her to ask you to enroll your daughter into the academy. You might not realize it but she's a mutant-a very powerful one at that." Emily's mom didn't look at all surprised' "Oh, I know. She told us months ago. Could we please talk inside?" They followed her into the house. it was ubeleivably normal. It was tasetful, elegant and precise-Laura felt like she was suffocating. how could anyone live in this much normalcy? she sat down on the leather armchair in the living room. kitty sat on the couch next to Scott and Jean. "Ma'am, I'm sure it's a shock for us to be coming to you like this, but we feel it would be in your daughters best interest to come with us." She sat down in the chair across from them and nodded. "I'm sure it is, but there's a problem..."

"You can rest assured that we'll take the best possible car of your daughter."

"Oh, I'm sure you will. the truth is...she's the problem ." Scott raised his eyebrow, "what do you mean?"

"Well, she closes herself off from the world. She has these headphones and she always wears them. She says that it's the only way she can keep out the noise of the rest of the world."

"It's understandable. the awakening of powers can be overwhelming."

"No, that's the thing, she's been wearing them since she was seven. she doesn't take them off until last thing at night. She doesn't even take them off in the house. the one time we did take them off she just...fell to the floor...screaming. it was horrible" Scott was quiet, if she had, had her powers at seven, the proffesor would have sensed her long ago. he wasn't sure what was happening. Jean decided to take over. "Mrs. Hale, I promise you, we will do whatever it takes to help your daughter figure out this problem." She let off a bark of bitter laughter. "I wish that was the only problem." The mutants looked at her with a look of bewilderment. "What do you mean? What else is wrong?" She took a shakey breath and all the others in the room leaned forward, the anticipation going up several notches. "It happened about two years ago. We were worried about her so we took her to a therapist. He insited we be with her for the first session so we sat in the background while they talked. It was just regular conversational stuff-school, CDs-that kind of thing. Then he asked why she always wore those headphones." She paused, looking as if to prepare herself for what she was going to say. "She said it was so that she wouldn't have to hear all the noise other people make. When he asked why she didn't want to hear it, she said these exact words. 'I hate them. It doesn't matter if I've met them or not, they're alive, so I hate them. I wish they would all die." The older woman quivered. "Her voice. It was so calm. You could tell. You could tell she meant it. I-we felt terrified. We still are. We're afraid of our own daughter!" She sobbed, burying her face in her hands, "what kind of parents are we? We fear our own daughter more than we love her!" She sobbed. Laura was dumbfounded-she had never seen someone break down like this before and she didn't know what to do. Jean and Kitty didn't have that problem and immediatly went to comfort her. "It's okay, you can't help how you feel." after several minutes and many more such sentences, she finally calms down. They sit in the quiet, contemplating what they had heard, when the sound of the door opening breaks their brooding. "Hey mom! Who's here? It's louder than usual!" Came a yell from the hall. Moments later, Emily Hale appears in the livingroom. She looks around, her eyes cutting through each of them as effectively as if she'd had cyclopeses powers. Her gaze rested on Laura, who was left speechless. Emily was dressed simply in a navy blue T-shirt and black jeans, her red and blue headphones clamped firmly around her ears. She had black hair cut jagedly around he jaw-line. Her eyes were a peircing shade of violet. Laura looked her up and down, taking in the girls posture and admitedly- her curves. She was the most beautiful person Laura had ever seen. The only flaw she could see was the hatred in the girls eyes, turning her otherwise pretty face into a mask of anger. "What do you _people_ want?" she sneered, as if the word people was the worst insult known to man. Jean was the first to speak. "Emily, We're from the Xavier institute. We'd like to have you enroll as a student. You have exeptional powers, and we would like to help you develop them."

"You mean you want to keep me were you can see me to make sure I don't kill evrerything if I snap." They were stunned into silence for a momment by the bluntness of her response. Jean had opened her mouth to respond whe Emily cut her off again "Don't you dare lie!" she snapped "even though it's what you _people_ are best at. you _can't_ lie to me!" Jean got up to try and walk to her, but she suddenly stopped, feeling as if she shouldn't come any closer. "Please, we want to help you!" Jean pleaded. The look in Emilys eyes shifted from hateful to murderous and everyone felt the sudden, crushing sense of intimidation. "How can you help me?" she screamed, "how can someon like you _ever_ comprehend how I feel for even a momment?" and then Jean let out a horrifying scream and clamped her hands over her ears and crumpled to the floor. emily glared at her mother, who flinched at her daughters gaze, "I'm going out mom. It's too noisy here. I'll be back...whenever." and she turned to leave while everyone else rushed to help Jean. She was quivering, her eyes shut tightly. after a few minutes, she slowly sat up, her breath heaving and uneven. "Jean, what happened? How did she get past your blocks?" The psychic shook her head, "I don't know. For a second I felt this overwhelming sense of intimidation, then suddenly, I was hit by...noise. More noise than I had ever felt before. I thought I heard voices in it but there was just too much." Laura looked at the door Emily had just left through. "How could anyone make it passed your psychic barriers so easily?"

"I-I don't know. it's like she just...found a chink and got in through there." They couldn't understand what ahd happened. there were far too many things wrong with this situation. Why had her powers manifested this late? How could she be that powerful? And what was this _thing_ going on with noise? Laura felt like she had to be the one to do something about this. "You guys take care of Jean, I'll go find Emily." She said flatly, and then ran out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Emily had gotten very far when she left. Laura spent over an hour tracking her. From her movements it was like she knew when Laura was getting close and changed her plans accordingly. Eventually Laura had tracked her to the middle of the park. She was very aware that she was wide open for an attack if this was a trap, but she had never been particularly cautious. She felt a chill go down her spine and instinctively readied herself for a fight. There was an almost inaudible 'snick' as two pairs of adamantium coated claws slid out of her knuckles. "Humph. Just like a person; always so ready for violence. It's disgusting." It was Emily's voice. Laura immediately spun around to see the girl leaning against a tree behind her. "Do you wanna kill me? Don't feel bad if you do-I have a talent for making people hate me. I suppose it's only fair since I hate them." Her childhood as an assassin meant that Laura wasn't the type to get disturbed easily, but the conversational way she spoke of such things was almost enough to send a shiver down her spine. She took a breath and retracted her claws. "I'm not going to kill you. I just want to bring you back." Emily sneered at her, "Take me back where? To your school? I don't want to. You just want to keep me where you can see me. That's just like you people, afraid and too obsessed with your appearance to admit it." Laura was far from empathic, but even she could tell that this girl had serious issues. "Listen to me, I don't know about them, but _I'm _not afraid of you. And believe me, if it turns out you're a threat, I'll be the first one out to kill you. But that's not the case; we just want to bring you back so we can help train you."

"Pah! I don't need training. You're just afraid that the brotherhood will catch wind of my powers and try to recruit me. Well you don't have to worry; as much as the idea of genocide appeals to me, I could never give my loyalty to anyone." At this point, Laura became exceedingly curious as to what could make someone so young hate people so much. "Why do you hate people so much?"

"They're alive. That's all that matters. They're alive and they're disgustingly obsessed with keeping it that way. It's because of them that I can never take off these headphones."

"What do your headphones have to do with this?" Emily straightened up and glared at Laura, "that's none of your business. Someone like you could never understand how I feel."

"What do you mean 'someone like me'?"

"Someone who's never had to suffer. Someone who thinks they can understand someone's pain just by talking to them." If she was that kind of person, Laura would have laughed. "I think you're confusing me with Jean. Believe me; I've suffered just as much as you have, and to be completely honest, I've always thought Jean talks too much." Emily sneered at the taller girl, refusing to believe her words. "You're lying. That's all you people do, lie. You wouldn't last five seconds with what I have to live with everyday."

"That's what you did to Jean wasn't it? You used your powers to make her feel your pain?" She realized.

"You're pretty smart. Yeah that's what I did. I had to show her that she couldn't help me, that there was no way she could understand my suffering." Laura immediately saw her opportunity. This girl was angry and was completely sold on her own superiority-people like that were easy to trick. "If you're so certain I can't handle your pain, then how about we make a deal?" Emily looked at her cautiously, "what kind of deal?" Laura smiled-she had her for sure.

"Use your powers on me. You said I couldn't take five seconds? Then give me five minutes worth. If I can't take it, I'll get the others to leave you alone."

"But?" Emily questioned.

"_But_, if I can, you agree to cooperate and come with us without any trouble." Emily took a moment to contemplate the offer. In her opinion, there was no way she could lose, and even if the others didn't leave her alone, prolonged sudden exposure might be enough to kill her-or at least render her catatonic. And that would mean one less person burdening her with their noise. She smiled and stepped towards Laura, touching the girls' temple to make sure she got the full effect. "You've got yourself a deal-say goodbye to your sanity."

"I did that years ago." Was the last thing Laura said before she was hit with an unbelievable amount of…noise. She winced at the suddenness of the wave but otherwise stood firm. At this Emily was somewhere between impressed and annoyed, but she wasn't done. As the five minutes wore on, Laura was beginning to feel lightheaded. She tried to keep focused, certain that if she let her mind slip, she would be overwhelmed. As she focused she began to hear snippets of words, too garbled to make sense of but she could tell that they were either angry, sad, desperate or otherwise negative in some way. She began to grit her teeth, and just as suddenly as it came, the noise stopped. Laura's eyes shot open and she gasped like a diver coming up for air. She wiped her forehead and looked at Emily, who was staring at her with quiet fury. "Looks like I was wrong about you," she admitted begrudgingly, "I'm a woman of my word, I'll go with you." Laura nodded and they started to walk back to the house.

When they got back, they found everyone waiting for them. Emily's dad was there too, looking extremely worried. "Hey." Emily said as they came in. the whole room turned to look at them. "Oh shut up," she groaned although no one spoke, "I agreed to go to the institute so there's nothing to worry about. Now where's you ride? I hear you have some kind of super jet. At least that should be fun. And look at the bright side mom; now you and dad won't have to be scared every day." And with that she walked upstairs to pack. Scott turned awkwardly to Emily's parents. "Thank you for your cooperation. The semester doesn't start for another few weeks so we can sort out the details at a later date; I assure you, you won't regret this." Emily's mother nodded, curling into her husband trying not to cry. "Thank you Mr. Summers, hopefully you'll be able to help her more than we have."

"Mr. Lane, don't blame yourself, there are some problems that we simply can't fix on our own. You shouldn't feel ashamed to accept help." The man nodded, not entirely convinced. Kitty stood next to Laura, "You did good today. How did you get her to come with us?" she asked. Laura hesitated, unsure of what to say.

"It was nothing, I just talked a little it's not important." she lied. Kitty grinned and patted Laura's shoulders. "Well whatever you did, it's a good thing you asked to come with us; I don't think we could have convinced her without you." And with that they started walking to the blackbird. Laura wasn't sure why she lied, but her opinion of Emily was now colored with an emotion that as an assassin she wasn't used to-sympathy. She had a taste of what the girl apparently felt every second. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her but whatever else it was there was only one word for what she had felt. Hell. What she had felt was five minutes of pure hell.


End file.
